FelS - Towards a Left-Wing Current

Social systems are made by people and ruling relations have no constitutional right to exist. In 1991, the group FelS - Für eine linke Strömung (Towards a Left-Wing Current) stepped up with an aim of collectively fighting power relations and changing society. The idea is moving away from verbally radical gestures and getting straight into concrete social fights - we are striving for long-term political work that contributes to a perceptible shift in the power relations of everyday life. This includes committing to reliable cooperation and wanting to share and attain knowledge.

That’s why we are part of the nationwide organisation „Interventionistische Linke (iL)“ (interventionist left), along with other radical left wing and anti-capitalist groups. IL has been active in acts of civil disobedience such as Castor-Schottern, Dresden Nazifrei, Blockupy and Block G8.

We have been engaged in the fight against Neo Nazism, racism and right wing populism for many years, not only in Berlin but across all of Germany. Our goal is a wide social mobilisation to destabilise Neo Nazism. This strategy was successfull in Dresden, where we were able to prevent a big nazi-demonstration. Together with others, we want to change the social environment in which inhumane ideologies can grow. We promote antifascist politics within the radical left that enable participation, reflect their own political practice, and look for new possible paths.

We need media to collectively reflect upon our political practice – arranca!

… is a journal published twice a year. It is a nodal point between analytical discourse and our political practice. The journal is dedicated to the different fields that FelS is working in, representing and structuring debates, as well as starting new ones. One particular topic is the focal point and theme of every issue, which is then filled with documentaries, interviews, reviews and much more.

For over 15 years Fels has been working in the field of internationalism, centred around the topics of anti-racism and migration. It seems obvious to us that we can only overcome transborder structures of power when we understand anti-racism as a concrete and continous form of international solidarity here and now. This is why we fight anti-racist struggles first and foremost together with persons directly affected by this racism. Especially in the last years within the group of FelS, people with varying privileged or discriminated statuses (for example concerning access to citizens' rights or citizenship) collaborate. We comprehend this as a chance to overcome "substitute politics" and to create a joint, connective political practice, as we wish to seek space for anti-racist perspectives and links within other parts of the left movement(s) too. We fight against all forms of everyday and structural racism. In our daily practice we work together with anti-racist, migrant, and self-organized refugees' initiatives and organisations, within different alliances. In order to enable non-german speakers to participate in FelS, we are experimenting with multilingualism.

Social natural conditions, the crises of climate, green capitalism and the question how climate justice can be achieved gloabally and locally are the topics we deal with when it comes to climate politics. It is very important for us to comprehend ecological destruction, the consumption of limited resources and climate change as results of the capitalist need for growth. So we have to to link struggles for a sustainable energy supply with questions of power and property. One of our focuses here, working together with other groups, is our engagement for an ecological, democratic and social organisation of energy supply in Berlin.

Family, care, self-insurance – a queer_feminist perspective

Which way of life do we desire? What does family mean to us? Why do we still classify people as 'men' and 'women'? Why is there division of labour? Who is taking care of whom? We take an intersectional approach, building on the struggles of radical left feminist movements for gender equality and the acceptance of queer relationships. We are trying to understand how different power relations, such as racism, sexism and ableism are related and reinforced and we want to fight them. In our queer_feminist approach, we are trying to open up spaces for identities, desires and care arrangements that go beyond binary heteronormative gender categories. 'Queer' means more than a lifestyle to us. As long as we are only accepted in our ways of living and desires if they conform to the so called 'necessity of productiveness', we won't keep quiet but will attack the order of capitalism.

Alongside this, we are involved in transnational struggles, both in the Blockupy protest and beyond. We are against the Troika's politics of austerity and the capitalist management of the crisis, which leaves Germany as the dominant actor within the European Union. We participate in the attempt of a transnational European network to oppose a Europe from above. Together with other European groups of the moderate and radical left, we want to work towards a Europe from below. We don’t understand this as an identiterian Europe or as a new nation, but imagine a post-national and radical democratic Europe, constituted on the base of a new sociality, in the sense of solidarity and common forms of living together. This form of the social is not limited to the borders of the European Union but directed against “Fortress Europe” and its borders.

A central aspect of our political practice is self-empowerment in social struggles via forms of collective and grass-roots democratic organisation. At the same time, this is an opportunitiy for people to fight their own societal separation. Self-reflection, as well as adressing and analysing exclusions, are part of this approach. As a consequence we are meeting in barrier-free accessible environments and are currently working on multi-language support at our weekly meetings.

FelS aims to develop a so-called “experimental practice”, which wants to motivate and develop the collective breaking of given rules and laws. We want to invite others to participate, so as to jointly act upon our own conflicts, demands and hopes for a better life.

Whether in a mass of people or in a small group, whether on a demonstration or at a rally, through collections of signatures, activating questionings or social networks: our experience of political work differs in some cases. If you want to join us, you do not need to have hundreds of years of political experience. If you are interested, you can find us on our monthly pub evening (every last tuesday of the month from 8 p.m. in B-Lage, Neukölln, Mareschstr. 1). Our rooms are suitable for wheelchairs.